The Story of the MV Portland
July 05, 2021 9:57 AM
In December 2015 the crew of the MV Portland heard about their sacking by newspaper article. What ensued was a 60 day sit in by the crew to fight for their jobs.
The crew were threatened with legal action but they stood firm because they believed that their ship was purely cabotage trade taking Australian resources from one Australian port to another Australian port as it had done for 27 years without incident.
On January 13 2016, at 1am the five remaining crewmembers aboard the Alcoa-owned vessel were woken by up to 30 security guards and intimidated into leaving the vessel.
A foreign crew had been flown in and it crewed the ship and it sailed off the Australian Coast.
This documentary was produced one year after the dispute but since then the Australian Industrial Relations commission was attempting to prosecute the union and the crew. They failed.
We can now tell their story.
Watch here: